by Thinus Ferreira
eMedia says it is positioning its eVOD
video streaming service "as the Netflix of South Africa" primarily
filled with e.tv's local content in video-on-demand format and that its
streamer passed 1.3 million registered users with 1.3 billion minutes in
watch-time.
In eMedia's latest annual financial report for the year ending 31 March 2024 it just released, eMedia says it is planning further enhancements before the end of March 2025 "to increase registered viewership and ad revenue".
eVOD - with e.tv that continues to commission and produce and release eOriginals on the streamer - competes with the South African public broadcaster's SABC+ which passed one million users but earlier this month relaunched yet again, now requiring user registration which means that SABC+ is starting anew for a third time to lure users and viewers to build a base.
eVOD that launched in August 2021 is also competing with MultiChoice's Showmax and a flurry of global streamers operating within South Africa like Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+ and a few smaller ones.
According to eMedia, eVOD racked up 1.3 billion minutes in watch-time by the end of March - representing 19% growth in watch-time, and now has 1 129 162 registered users. It should be noted that the 1.13 million registered users don't represent active users, the number of which eMedia doesn't want to provide.
Over 23 eVOD original movies were released during the financial year, as well as six eOriginal series.
eVOD did its first-ever live-stream event in October for the Red Bull Sound Clash and is working to introduce live-stream advertising and display banner advertisements for viewers.
eMedia says e.tv continues to "lead the group and maintains a market share of approximately 33.5%".
This is slightly down from its 34.5% in March 2023, although it outperforms the SABC's 27.3% and DStv's32.9% market share.
Antonio Lee, eMedia financial director, says eMedia's prime time share "averaged 34.4%, surpassing both the SABC's 30.5% and DStv's 28.9%, solidifying the group's position as the largest broadcaster during both 06:00 to 24:00, and prime time."
"This marks the third consecutive year that the group has outperformed the SABC in prime time."
About its free-to-air satellite TV service Openview, eMedia says it's "another key component of the group" and that eMedia's TV channels available on Openview "consistently rank among the top 20 satellite TV channels nationwide, indicating strong performance and audience engagement".
"The group is pleased with the growing market share of its channels on Openview and further growth in audience market share is anticipated with the increasing activations of Openview set-top boxes."
Openview reached 3 428 523 activated set-top boxes by March 2024.
In its ongoing battle with MultiChoice which wants to remove a collection of e.tv-packaged TV channels from DStv - a case that is still ongoing - Khalik Sherrif, eMedia Holdings CEO, says that "there is a looming threat of the channels being removed once again".
"It is concerning that the matter of dominance seems to be overlooked in a market where DStv commands approximately nine million out of about 12 million satellite homes."
"This absolute dominance has a significant impact on eMedia's revenue as the loss of advertising revenue from the audience viewing the channels on DStv will severely affect eMedia's ability to compete and acquire quality content."
"While eMedia will continue to fight for the channels to remain on the DStv platform, urgent measures must be taken to mitigate the loss of advertising revenue. Alternative strategies will be explored to compensate for this revenue shortfall."
eMedia notes that its legal battles with MultiChoice increased legal expenses over the past year by R8.8 million.
